Moldova could get intermediary status, between an EU member and a neighbor

The European Union (EU) now does not have the capacity to take in 5 new members the next 10 years, says Elmar Brok, a member of the European Parliament (EP) and ex-chairman of the External Affairs Committee of the EP. In an interview for Radio Europa Libera, quoted by Jurnal de Chisinau, the europarliamentarian suggests these circumstances could still change, if the candidate countries reform their economies, and the EU – its institutional system. “Considering all the countries seeking the EU membership: Moldova, Georgia Ukraine and the countries from the Western Balkans, we'll get to be 44 member states. We keep talking about one country only, which can join, no problem. But if you look at the general picture, you see the problem,” says Elmar Brok. “The EU has a political objective: to become a political entity and not only a free trade area,” he said. In his report, Brok shows there is a danger that the EU may have extended too much and needs to be consolidated. “After so many expansions, we have to deal with developing our internal institutions, market, coin. That is why we think to develop something between the status of a member and of an EU neighbor, a status keeping open the discussion of joining, meaning that that country will not have this status always. We did so 20 years ago,” the europarliamentarian said. Speaking about Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine and the countries from Africa, Elmar Brok backed the Polish Foreign Minister who said “the countries in the South are neighbors of Europe, the Eastern countries are European neighbors.” Brok reiterates in his report the EU's commitment for the candidate countries and for the ones shown clear joining conditions: Croatia, Turkey, FYRO Macedonia and the rest of the countries in the Western Balkans. In a statement related to the Brok report on "the strategy document of the European Commission on expansion,” Romanian europarliamentarian Titus Corlatean says "the perspective of adhesion of some South-East European countries to the EU is the engine of the reforms on the way of the democratic transformation of those states. The strategy document of the European Commission on expansion in 2007 should have conveyed an unequivocal signal regarding the firm commitment for the countries with which the joining talks have been started and for the countries having perspectives to join." "The future adhesion to the EU is an impetus for the Moldovan democratic opposition to continue struggling to establish democratic legislative and institutional structures,” Info-Prim Neo quotes the communique of the Romanian europarliamentarian.